Carolina Gold
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Carolina Gold rice is a variety of
African rice ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown in West Africa around 3,000 years ago. In agriculture, it has largely been replaced by higher-yielding Asian ric ...
first popularized in
South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
, USA in the 1780s. It is named for the golden color of its unhulled grains.


History

Rice was grown in South Carolina (in the
South Carolina Lowcountry The Lowcountry (sometimes Low Country or just low country) is a geographic and cultural region along South Carolina's coast, including the Sea Islands. The region includes significant salt marshes and other coastal waterways, making it an impor ...
) by
enslaved people Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, and led to enormous wealth. It was a staple of
Lowcountry cuisine Lowcountry cuisine is the cooking traditionally associated with the South Carolina Lowcountry and the Georgia coast. While it shares features with Southern cooking, its geography, economics, demographics, and culture pushed its culinary identi ...
, and at the outset of the Civil War, 3.5 million of the 5 million bushels of rice produced in the United States were Carolina Gold rice. Over subsequent decades it declined in popularity until the last commercial crop was harvested in 1927. In the 1980s, Dr. Richard and Patricia Schulze became interested in the variety while restoring rice ponds on their vacation property in
Hardeeville, South Carolina Hardeeville is a city in Jasper County, South Carolina, Jasper and Beaufort County, South Carolina, Beaufort counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 7,473 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, an increase of o ...
. They found out that a
USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...
center on rice research in Texas had retained a stock of it in its seed bank. After obtaining and planting , they harvested pounds in the first season. By 1988, they were harvesting pounds per year. Two commercial efforts, ''Anson Mills'' and ''Carolina Plantation Rice'', began selling the variety to the general public in 1998, after an effort at
Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...
had bred a disease-resistant strain. While
Riviana Foods Ebro Foods, S.A. (; ), formerly Ebro Puleva, is a Spanish food processing company. Ebro Foods is the world's largest producer of rice and the second biggest producer of pasta (its Panzani brand is a market leader in France). The company's head of ...
sells rice under the brand name Carolina Rice, including a
parboiled Parboiling (or leaching) is the partial or semi boiling of food as the first step in cooking. The word is from the Old French ''parbouillir'', 'to boil thoroughly' but by mistaken association with "part", it has acquired this definition. The w ...
variety called ''Carolina Gold'', these share no connection to the variety of the name. The Carolina Gold Rice Foundation was created in 2004 to help popularize, restore and preserve the heirloom rice. It has since expanded to other heirlooms such as French Huguenot black landrace
buckwheat Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum'') or common buckwheat is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. Buckwheat originated around the 6th millennium BCE in the region of what ...
, Sea Island red peas, and others.


See also

*
Gullah people The Gullah () are a subgroup of the African American ethnic group, who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their ...
*
Gullah language Gullah (also called Gullah-English, Sea Island Creole English, and Geechee) is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" within the community), an African American population living in coastal regions of South Car ...
* Sea Island red pea *
Sea Island cotton ''Gossypium barbadense'' is one of several species of cotton. It is in the mallow family. It has been cultivated since antiquity, but has been especially prized since a form with particularly long fibers was developed in the 19th century. Other ...


References

{{Rice Rice varieties History of slavery in South Carolina Culture of South Carolina Rice in the United States